


Hunting Grounds

by SerialKillerQueen



Series: Difficult Girl(s) [19]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Backstory, Billie is told the truth, F/F, F/M, Flashbacks, Genderbending, Genderswap, Harringrove is in the background, Horror, Mimicry, Minor Injuries, Multi, Supernatural Elements, do not copy to another site, ships are not the focus, unbeta'd we die like mne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 04:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20808182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerialKillerQueen/pseuds/SerialKillerQueen
Summary: O Death O Death consider my age. Please don't take me at this stage.Eleven reveals a truth, we find out what Billie and Maddie discovered in that cave.





	Hunting Grounds

**Author's Note:**

> Stranger Things and its characters do not belong to me. The summary is from 'O Death' by Jen Titus, cover by Amy Van Roekel. All rights go to their respective owners.  
You should listen to this if you want some mood music (I did while writing). Although at one part it goes almost silent then gets very loud so be braced for that!  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYpgf4nXxEQ  
Check the bottom notes for clarifications!

_The drop is surprisingly steep, not to far, but looking at the iced over wall in front of her... she's not going to be climbing back out. _

_"Fuck."_

_"Billie."_

_She startles violently, almost losing her grip on the lighter. _

_"Maddie?"_

_Why does she sound so calm? Where is her sister?_

_"Billie. Come here."_

_A chill rips down her spine and it's not from the cold._

_That voice is wrong, the tone, the cadence, the... the location. It sounds like it's right in front of her but at the same time far away, it sounds like Maddie but profoundly _not_ Maddie._

_"Billie?!"_

_Now she hears Nico, and she sounds so afraid that she almost responds, almost moves toward it, but catches herself._

_"Come here... Come... Here."_

_She clamps a hand over her own mouth, trying to be quiet, closing the lighter slowly, some animal part of her freezing at what it is sure is a predator._

_Where can she go? She has no idea the layout of the cave, doesn't know where... where this _thing_ \- because it can't be a person she _knows_ that - is._

_When a horrible, deafening, unnatural _screech_ rings out she's terrified, but her hand silences her scream (she'll realize later that that saved her life)._

_She can't say how long she stays there, barely breathing, until suddenly she feels the oppressive sense of wrongness just... lift, followed shortly by the sound of footsteps, and then Maddie is there, practically dragging Nico with her. _

_She can't see them well despite her eyes adjusting to the darkness, but she's sure it's them, in the same way she was sure the voice _wasn't.__

_Maddie looks as scared as she does, her eyes wide, but Nico... Nico is bloody, she can see it the dark trails, black in this light, all over her, and she just keeps mumbling._

_"There were so many bones, there were so many bones..."_

_Her completely frayed nerves threaten to snap and she reaches out to shake or strike or - _something_ the other girl but Maddie jostles her and she falls silent._

_"I think I know a way out. I studied some maps before we came here, since we told him we were going up here our dad insisted -" _

_She has no energy for an explanation that doesn't matter right now, especially not when she's not sure what's listening in._

_"Let's go... quietly."_

_Maddie looks at her again and she doesn't know the exacts, but she can see in her eyes that she knows the same thing she does. There's something on this mountain._

_It's hunting._

Even scrunches his nose up slightly, adjusting his grip on Mikaela's hand.

He knows Billie and Stephanie are arguing, they're doing it quietly, but it's arguing, he can sense their anger, but the fear is much louder, the worry too.

They've been... off? Wrong? The past several days, since Billie's friends showed up, but he knows they're not what's causing the problem.

It's secrets, the secrets they're both keeping are causing this.

He stands up, pulling Mikaela with him, and strides into the other room, the older girls falling silent as he does.

Then he holds out his hand and the couch lifts off the ground and hovers in the air and then floats back down, blood runs down his nose.

Billie looks shocked, Stephanie looks surprised, Mikaela looks panicked.

_The cabin door opens with an audible squeak that makes all three of them wince, followed by a muffled, pained gasp from Nico._

_It's obvious the place hasn't been lived in for some time, covered in dust and cobwebs._

_In some ways it's a relief, no one and no _thing_ has been in here for awhile._

_She helps Maddie get Nico situated on an old couch and starts looking around, her hand occasionally brushing against the machete, letting the weight of it reassure her._

_She doesn't find a... she doesn't know, miniature nuke to use on this fucking mountain, but she does find an old jacket, to big for her but she's not complaining, it's _freezing,_ and a first aid kit that seems to be intact, as far as she can tell _

_Billie starts to clean and bandage Nico's scratches as best she can, they don't _seem_ deep but she's no doctor._

_Maddie reappears from the bedroom, and she's got a pistol gripped in her hand, what looks like a box of ammo in the other._

_It's not a nuke, but she knows Maddie's big on self defense, chances are she can handle that gun, it's better than nothing, and better than a machete that requires getting up close and personal to use._

_Nico has been studying something near her feet, the edge of a box that's barely peeking out from under the couch, and she reaches for it suddenly, pulling it out, and holy shit is that a _grenade?__

_Maddie suddenly perks up._

_"Billie, there were gas cans outside weren't there?"_

_There were, she'd seen them on the way in, and she's pretty sure she can guess what Maddie's thinking, after all why _not_ try to solve your problems with fire?_

_It's a long shot, she's not sure how this is going to work, not sure what could or could not kill this thing (can it be killed?), or how they'd even properly set this up, but it's _a_ shot._

_A part of her wants to just wait things out here, when the sun comes up they can find the path and hike back to civilization, but what if it was already tracking them? What if it was close behind and would find them soon? What if it never lost them and is playing with them?_

_Can they afford to wait? Can they pull this off?_

**Author's Note:**

> _No wealth, no land, no silver, not gold. Nothing satisfies me but your soul._  
Have any of you figured me out yet? I'm not being terribly subtle anymore xD If you figured it out even before reading because of the summary then you have good taste. ;)  
Also please just suspend your disbelief about gasoline and grenades, I'm doing the best I can with what I have xD  
I hope nothing was confusing but just in case, the first flashback is immediately after Billie falls into the cave in the previous part, the second flashback is what leads to the very first flashback that we got in 'Old faces old scars.'  
I hope you enjoy!
> 
> If you'd like an alternate mood music suggestion (even though it's a cover/altered version of the same song):  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3NlyiwpdlI
> 
> Check the mycast for faceclaim references!  
https://www.mycast.io/stories/p/mLM9vESd2bfJh7lY0s6o5g


End file.
